Janet Frame 1924 – 2004
Escaped a scheduled lobotomy when, just days before the procedure, her short stories collection debut was unexpectedly awarded a national literary prize. Lobotomy was a cruel mind-altering procedure performed mostly (84%) on women who were expected to be docile and submissive, but instead, were (annoyingly) anxious and ambitious. The procedure was often performed without requiring the consent of the 'patient' and sometimes without their knowledge.
Between lobotomy and witch hunts that allowed murdering 'suspected' women with no repercussions, intelligent women were often penalised (and conditioned into) passiveness and imposed incompetence. Today many women around the world are still facing modern forms of lobotomy and witch hunts as well, in addition to the well-established gender bias in the field of science and technology, leadership and land ownership.
Another form of 'taming' women into docility and submission is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Female is the forced removal of external (young) female genitalia with the aim of curbing their sexual drive so that they are better and 'calmer' future wives. Despite the global condemnation of the practice, more than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut as such. FGM is mostly carried out on girls between infancy and age 15.
The long-term consequences of such historic and ongoing conditioning of women are devastating for women, communities, and the planet. Gender inequality has resulted in an economic system based in extraction and exploitation while a body of evidence shows that expanding opportunities for women and girls reduced poverty and enhanced ecosystems (ILO 2016; UNDP 2016a; UN Women 2014; World Bank 2011).
Dear women, you are wonderful, you are capable, you can do it! Keep fighting for your rights and those of your sisters in humanity for a better future.
Here the story ends, or does it?
Happy International Women's Day!
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